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A visual artist and painter as well as an unconventional, self-taught songwriter and musician, everything that fuels the creative output of Manchester’s Xenya Genovese, AKA Freak Slug, is about raw, authentic, sometimes weird but always totally true self-expression. She’s not one to sugar coat things; “I’m a lot, so it’s a lot to show who I am because some people might not like it,” she accepts. But in amongst the mix of an introverted extrovert, self described “avoidant” Leo rising, lives the sort of musician who can do nostalgic, ‘90s influenced and dreamy as well as eccentric and experimental. Down there, picking through the curious mix of sounds and feelings, lives Freak Slug.

Having moved from Manchester to London to study Fine Art at university, Genovese thought her path was already set. “I’ve been doing art since I was young. It’s been quite a surprise for me, doing this whole music thing…” she says. In some ways, the pivot to musician did sneak up on her. Where art was her career (or so she thought), from the age of 15 writing songs had just been a hobby; an outlet where she could see where her mind went with no external expectations. “From about 18, I was making music alone - experimental, fuzzy, lo-fi stuff; embracing mistakes and recording through my Mac mic. I was inspired by unique sounds and music with loads of imperfections,” she remembers. “It wasn’t what I thought I’d be doing so I was just going with the flow. Having fun was my inspiration, and seeing what I liked.”

With a post-university move to Barcelona to pursue her art, however, came a turning point. Having previously vowed that she would never set foot on a stage (“God bless you and well done, but it’s not for me”), Genovese found herself doing exactly that. Much to her surprise, it felt good - so much so that, when she returned to Manchester, it was with a whole new idea. “I came back with a vision,” she chuckles. “Barcelona was when I decided I wanted to be Freak Slug.”

The name Freak Slug encapsulates Genovese’s artistic world both perversely and perfectly. Her releases under the name so far - debut 2020 EP Videos and its viral hit “Radio” (13.5 million Spotify streams and counting), and follow-up EPs I’m In Love and Viva La Vulva - might have introduced listeners to her “more summery, happy, LA sound”, but with the advent of debut album I Blow Out Big Candles, this Slug is burrowing down into evermore unlikely places. As she accurately points out: “The name is giving more grunge than joy”.

Hugely influenced by ‘90s cult heroes like Ride and Mazzy Star, Freak Slug is all about hitting a mood. A big, vocal character IRL, Genovese acknowledges that, when it comes to more internal matters, she finds life less easy. “I struggle to feel, in all honesty; music that moves me is the only way that I can feel sometimes. So if I can make something that makes me feel things, that’s cool cos I don’t get that opportunity often, and if I can make other avoidant people feel things, that’s cool too.” She laughs: “I’ve got the energy, I don’t need to listen to fucking drum ‘n bass. I’ve already got that!”

A large part of the journey towards I Blow Out Big Candles has been embracing these parts of her personality. Collaborating with Jadu Heart’s Alex Headford across the record, the process became one of stripping it all back to the playful, spontaneous way Freak Slug began, back before Genovese had any eyes on her, when she was making music just for herself. Rather than polish her musical world up for her debut, she wanted to actively break it down. “My paintings are fucking weird and wacky and textural and authentically myself because no-one sees them. But with Freak Slug in the past, I was scared to fuck about [because there was more risk],” she says. “It’s just about not giving a shit about trivial matters, It takes a lot for me to care, so I like to show that carelessness in my art. Now, with the music on this album, I’m really showing that nonchalant vibe.”

When Freak Slug speaks of carelessness, it’s in the Stephen Malkmus version of the word: the Pavement frontman who she highlights as the sort of writer - loose, instinctive, not bound by technical convention - that she’s interested in. She wants to make music that “has bite”, that “doesn’t fuck about”, that “cuts the shit”. I Blow Out Big Candles is a strong statement of all of this and more.

“Ya Ready” opens the record with a Freak Slug hallmark: grungy, all-enveloping guitars offset with a vocal airiness that intriguingly belies the message underneath. “It’s about going out when you’re due on your period, and it’s the full moon and you’re feeling angry and you shouldn’t be out because shit could go down,” she says. “It’s about feeling like you’re gonna cause a scene, when you know you shouldn’t be socializing but instead you’re out having a drink and you want to fucking kill someone.” A sense of these primal energies coupled with something otherworldly fills the songs on the record. “I’m very spiritual, that’s fully my vibe,” Genovese says. On “Spells” - a strange prowl of a song that pairs a slinking bass line with a deliciously twitchy electronic motif - she casts a flirtatious incantation over a soon-to-be-lover (sadly, now, an already-has-been ex). Meanwhile, on the Nilufer Yanya-recalling “Be Your Girl”, she sings its refrain - “I could be yours / Can I be yours? / I won’t get bored” - over and over, questioning the idea of repetition and boredom itself and coming out with something strangely euphoric.

“Witch” is a cathartic slacker gem with an eyelash-fluttering twist, while “Sexy Lemon” is pure “girl crush”. “I wanted something dreamy but still heavy like Slowdive, where they still manage to get that fuzz and those walls,” she says. “It’s about a girl that I liked from afar - she’s cute. It’s a cool inspiration when you’ve got something to work off!” Elsewhere, Genovese describes the cheeky, speak-sing, saxophone-laced “Piece of Cake” as the ultimate manifestation of Freak Slug right now. “That song is just me,” she says. “I can tell I was smiling when I sang those vocals. It’s comparing a man to a piece of cake that looks good, but actually… you’re looking really nice but when I eat it then it’s just a bit shit, you know what I mean?”

Playful, fun, but not shying away from the darker sides of both sound and psyche, the result is a debut that builds a whole world for it to live in. I Blow Out Big Candles dreams as big and unshackled as Freak Slug herself.